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Norma Merrick Sklarek (April 15, 1926 – February 6, 2012) was an African-American architect who accomplished many firsts for black women in architecture. ==Biography== Norma Merrick was born in Harlem, New York, to Trinidadian parents; her father was a doctor and her mother a seamstress.〔Woo, Elaine. ("Pioneering African American architect" ). ''Los Angeles Times'', Feb. 10, 2012.〕 She attended Hunter College High School, went on to Barnard College, and then received her architecture degree in 1950 from Columbia University School of Architecture, one of only two women in her graduating class.〔 Merrick was one of the first black women to be licensed as an architect in the United States, and the first to be licensed in the states of New York (1954) and California (1962).〔 After receiving her degree, Merrick was unable at first to find work at an architecture firm, so she took a job at the New York Department of Public Works. Starting in 1955, she worked for five years at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. In 1960, she moved to California and went on to work for Gruen and Associates in Los Angeles, where she remained for two decades and in 1966 became the firm's first African-American director of architecture.〔 In 1967, Merrick married Rolf Sklarek, a Gruen architect, thereafter using Norma Merrick Sklarek as her professional name. She had had a prior marriage to a man named Ransom; and after Sklarek's death she would marry a third time, to Cornelius Welch, a doctor. She had two sons.〔 In 1980, Sklarek moved over to Welton Becket Associates, where she worked on Terminal One at the Los Angeles International Airport. She also worked with the Jon Jerde Partnership.〔 Sklarek became the first black woman to be elected a fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), in 1980.〔 In 1985, she became the first African-American female architect to form her own architectural firm: Siegel-Sklarek-Diamond, which was the largest woman-owned and mostly woman-staffed architectural firm in the United States. Among Sklarek's designs are the San Bernardino City Hall in San Bernardino, California, the Fox Plaza in San Francisco, and the Embassy of the United States in Tokyo, Japan.〔〔Griffith, Susan J. ("Normal Merrick Sklarek" ). Blackpast.org (website). Accessed Oc.t 27, 2015.〕 Following her retirement, she was appointed by the governor to serve on the California Architects Board. She also served for several years as chair of the AIA's National Ethics Council.〔 She died Feb. 6, 2012, in Pacific Palisades, California. A former president of the AIA said of her: "She was capable of doing anything. She was the complete architect."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Norma Merrick Sklarek」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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